OUTLINE ON THE SURGE OF REALITY SHORTAGE
History has often proved to be a two-fold dialogue between the past and the present, providing us with a layered, constructive understanding of the “process of evolution”. The retrospective approach outlines our arrival at the present state of time and provides us with a precedent study of an epoch.
The following documentation, outline on the surge of ‘Reality Shortage’ is a visual study which takes forward the understanding of Rem Koolhaas’s theory of “culture of congestion” which eventually led to a rise in population and scarcity of reality, i.e., “Reality Shortage”. The study aims to consider the impact of the ‘machine age’ and recontextualize is in the era of ‘digital age’ which has deformed a society on its acts of interpretation.
Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas serves as a primary source for the study, while literary references such as The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin and Ways of Seeing by John Berger are used to assert a firm stance on our understanding.
Conclusively, an epilogue is provided to comment on the morality of architects, designers and artists, which takes a dialogue from Franz Kafka’s The Hunger Artist and aims to present the issue in an architectural form.
Rem Koolhaas, describes the situation in the context of Manhattan but the principle remains the same as facts wear and reality is consumed. The higher the density of a civilization - the more metropolitan it is - the higher the frequency and process of consumption of the reality of nature and artefacts. They are worn out so rapidly that the supply is depleted causing, “Reality Shortage”.
Impact of Machine Age on Art and Architecture
At the cusp of machine age, a world fabricated by human beings, the social order of the society began to face a threatened loss of patriarchy, overthrowing the cultural and social organization. The birth of the railways, meant that a rural exodus and recurring revolutions between the rising working class and ruling class would be seen as a token of progress, while others, lamented the change as a threat to the heritage and ideological values. The bursting out of city centers into suburbs was immediate and provided by means of achieving the urban expansion imposed by industrial concentration. And a change was overdue, as architects of the old school had grown self-satisfied and were borrowing elements for antique styles and historical ornamentation.
With the population rising around the city centers, the working class saw architecture as a possibility to show their rise in the society to the riches and the wealthy, with false ornamentation borrowed from another style and another time. And the constant surge in the number of members of the society meant that the existing art and architecture that was once kept exclusive to the wealthy was now to be visited and replicated by the rising working class. The culture of congestion that was never experienced by mankind in its existence was evolving at a steady pace and the consumption of reality and its elements by the public was being observed by the theorists. The world of replication and capital needs was beginning to take shape where art and architecture were running out of time against the intensity of reality consumption.
With machine age, the use of camera and photography became a medium for exchange of ideas and replication, and the reclusive society that was unable to witness the property of the riches can now easily access them through pictures. The meaning of an entity began to diversify, if not mystify, with its reach outgrowing amongst people living in a different country or continent.
Impact of Digital Age on Art and Architecture
Digital revolution, where production of machines that can think faster than any human being, has constantly evolved since its inception. From imagining an electronic device that would potentially end the World War 2 to the invention of internet, which would allow us to communicate all over the world, digitalization has cemented itself in our lives quite naturally. In a situation as that of machine age, the revolting society has moved forward with time and accepted the new normal. Technological advancements have introduced our lives to various social media platforms, allowing the users to raise a voice, an opinion or even propose radical designs. The possibilities have been endless. But to look over the horizon often fools our sight with a meeting point of two different planes, whilst they don’t.
Every day we pass through hundreds of images and absorb their impact within a short amount of time. In an era where mechanical reproduction through images was transcending ideas and interpretation is every direction, the new normal of digital age has imbedded itself in our lives quite naturally and images have become an important part of our lives. Corporate firms continue to exploit these images to squeeze profits from the pockets of potential customers, museums are selling their most prestigious artefact in bunches of images digitally, the exposure of architecture now rests solely in the lens of the camera. The art or architecture that once was unable to transcend in space and time began to move slowly in mechanical reproduction of images during the machine age, but now it travels at the speed of electricity in the same format of images and videos. The eye of the beholder now rests not on the surrounding environment but on the screens of social media platforms that take them on a world tour by the touch of a finger.
Reality shortage which had rose from the culture of congestion within the society has fed itself in abundance with the ever-changing reality through social media. With images that allows us to shop, run business and get updates from all over the world, our ever-changing environment has left little to allow us to be absorbed by art and architecture. Even through images, the spaces which ceased to leave an impact on the viewer now seems to dissipate as the spaces keep on changing as we swipe on a social media platform. While images keep on running through our every day lives, the cost of experiencing the authentic often seems to lose its presence within these social media platforms.
Conclusive Thoughts
Consumed by an abundance of images, our everyday lives interact with social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. New images that are broadcasted daily pile over on the previous ones. Our experience to any place, artefact or building is a swipe away on our mobile phones. One of the major observations that has informed the study lies solely on the role of social media platforms on an architect or an artist. With the same images being broadcasted and accessed by everyone in any part of the world, so often, designers are found lurking on these platforms to copy another style of another time and place. Where does the role of architect justify itself in copying the design meant situated in another context? Or where does the enlightenment come from to realize that replication of architecture commercially would make everywhere similar? What’s here can be anywhere else, and homogeneous could be the term used synonymously for architecture. The intensity of absorption is constantly rising due to our escalating digital age and so is the replication. So, what’s left to experience in art and architecture when the authentic is getting submerged with replications? But art and architecture were never meant to be explored on a mobile screen, instead they were meant for the senses or interacted physically, just as Peter Zumthor quotes the importance of “Atmospheres”.
